In the use of a household sewing machine for sewing ornamental stitch patterns, the work piece must be positioned accurately with respect to the needle prior to beginning the sewing operation. Further, the regulators associated with the pattern forming mechanism of the sewing machine must be in a known position of adjustment with respect to the ornamental pattern to be sewn, and the width of zigzag stitching of the pattern must be known, for instance, in order to continue sewing a previously stitched pattern, or to match a previously stitched buttonhole, or the like.
Solutions to the problem of providing visualization of the characteristics of the actual stitching to be produced by a sewing machine prior to the actual stitching are unprecedented in the prior art.
In prior known sewing machines, only arbitrary indicia associated with operator influenced regulators have been provided to inform the operator what stitching characteristics might be expected, so that unless the operator used trial and error methods such as first sewing on a scrap of fabric there would be uncertainty of the precise stitching result which would be obtained from any particular setting of the regulators. Frequently, it is not possible nor convenient to test the settings on a scrap fabric as where setting changes must be made while a stitched article remains in place under the presser foot of a sewing machine. Other trial and error methods such as manually turning the handwheel to observe needle penetration of the work piece are not only ineffective to indicate aesthetic effect of pattern size differences, but may result in unnecessary needle penetration of a work piece outside the area encompassed by the pattern to be sewn.